Health chief in call to curb cigarette sales
1:10pm Thursday 29th July 2010 in News
ONE of Bolton’s top health chiefs is calling on the new Government to impose a clampdown on the sale of cigarettes.
The town’s director of public health, Jan Hutchinson, has joined her colleagues across the county in writing to public health minister, Anne Milton.
The MP has announced a review of tobacco regulations and the Greater Manchester health bosses are urging her to implement proposed rules as part Labour’s Tobacco Act.
They aimed to ban tobacco products being displayed in shops and cigarettes being sold from machines. The county’s ten directors of public health believe the measures will help prevent children from smoking, by putting cigarettes out of sight and reach.
Mrs Hutchinson said: “I fully support efforts to discourage children and young people from smoking. Smoking-related illnesses are the main killers in Bolton, causing many people to die prematurely.”
In Greater Manchester, smoking is responsible for 14 deaths a day, with more than 80 per cent of people starting the habit before the age of 18.
